European ecostress hub phase 2: thermal infrared remote sensing of terrestrial ecosystem processes

The European ECOSTRESS Hub (EEH) funded by European Space Agency targets at generating land surface temperature (LST), evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity (GPP) from the high-resolution ECOSTRESS observations. In Phase 1 (2020-2022), EEH LST obtained using the split-window and temperature and emissivity separation algorithms achieved good accuracy with an overall RMSE around 2 K. Evaluation of three ET estimates using different models, namely the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS), Two Source Energy Balance (TSEB) parametric models, and the non-parametric Surface Temperature Initiated Closure (STIC) model, indicated that STIC ET had the highest accuracy (RMSE of similar to 70 W m(-2)). In Phase 2 (2023-2026), the surface energy balance will be coupled with photosynthesis through canopy-stomatal conductance. Overall, EEH is promising to advance the science of terrestrial ecosystem processes and facilitate the preparation for the future high-resolution thermal missions.